In the highly competitive fishing tournaments that are known today, a fisherperson has at his or her disposal many improved and sophisticated electronic devices which enable that person to locate likely fishing areas very precisely. Such likely areas are brushpiles, rocks, ledges and trees within the body of water which is being fished. Whether during the day or night, these likely areas must be marked with a buoy and fished precisely from all directions. The angler of the prior art has not had a proper marking device that could meet all of his needs. The marking devices currently available and those known in the prior art leave much to be desired. For instance, some buoys are in the shape of barbells, and these models have very small spindles around which the cord line is to be wrapped, which wastes valuable time on the angler's part in trying to retrieve the buoy and either letting the line out or retrieving the line upon the buoy. Generally, with such buoy markers, the buoy is a floating object of suitable size and shape with a line wrapped around it in some manner, and a weight attached to the free end of the line, which serves as an anchor. Once the angler decides on a place to fish, he will then put the buoy in the water, let the line release itself, and the weight will sink to the bottom of the water and rest upon the bottom surface. This then positions the buoy at the desired spot and it by and large maintains itself at that position.
Some buoy markers have a chamber which fills with water, and then the buoy rights itself to provide a visual target for the angler. Frequently this righting process is slow and delays the angler considerably. Also, once the buoy is retrieved out of the water, the drainage from the buoy is quite aggravating to the angler. In some of the tall buoys, which project out of the water a considerable distance in order to provide a better visual indication to the angler, there is a drifting problem caused by wind blowing or the current moving, which will move the buoy itself out of a proper fishing location, and this of course defeats the original purpose to begin with.
However, one of the biggest problems encountered by the angler is the problem of night fishing, whereas most of the prior art buoys, regardless of their design or shape, all but become useless after dark. In the past, some buoys have been coated with reflective surfaces to be seen when a bright light is shone against the buoy to locate it for the angler. However, this creates a substantial problem because a bright light shone around the water will spook the game fish which the angler seeks to maintain in the position where they have been located, and it also alerts competitors of the angler's fishing location. Also, shining a bright light in the dark will hamper the angler's night vision for several minutes and this causes the angler to lose directional contact with the buoy which the angler has just located with that bright light. Obviously, the shining of a light is not the most desirable practice for night fishing. If a buoy cannot be located at night, the angler will make many wasted casts to unproductive fishing locations. It is very important that the angler be able to see the marker buoy at all times and to be able to manuever his boat around the buoy and fish a particular location marked by the buoy from all directions without getting too close to the buoy or without spooking the fish. Obviously, when an angler has lost contact with or the location of the buoy, important time is wasted in trying to relocate the buoy and getting set up again to fish a particular location. In fact, this inventor has found that it is quite easy to lose buoys altogether at night, regardless of the system used with the prior art buoys.
There are known in the prior art, signalling devices which have lights contained therein. However, these lights are impractical to use as, or with, a fishing buoy because the lights are either too bright or to directionalized to be of proper effect for an angler in a competitive fishing situation.
Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention is to provide an improved illuminated buoy for the angler.
More specifica11y, it is an object of the present invention to provide a marker buoy for an angler that when cast upon the water is self-illuminating with a soft light and will set itself to the water's bottom without malfunction.
Another object of this invention is to provide a fishing buoy that can be easily seen for limited distances from any angle at night regardless of how it is set in the water and regardless of any wave or wind action.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide an improved fishing buoy for a competitive angler that is simple to produce, easy to use, and inexpensive to manufacture.
Other objects advantages and capabilities of the invention will become apparent from the following description, summary of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, showing only a preferred embodiment of the invention.